The game had been his whole life ever since high school, but now, it was time to chart a new course, start a new career.

So he went back to school, got his Series 7 Securities license and went to work for MassMutual as a financial broker in his hometown of Atlanta.

"Every day I'd go into the office with a coat and tie on and sit there and be miserable," Brown said. "There were some aspects of it that were OK, but it was nothing like being on the (football) grass."

During that time, Brown's son, Vincent Jr., was getting into football, playing Pop Warner, and Brown -- who during his playing days earned the nickname "The Undertaker" for his tackles that drove opponents into the ground -- felt the tug of the game pulling at him again.

"When I got cut by the Patriots, coach Parcells said to me, `You have the ability to influence others ... you've got to find a way to use it,'" Brown said. "It took me a couple of years to realize what he was saying. But it's been rewarding ever since."

From starting as a high school volunteer in 2001, Brown has used coaching to get back into football and will head into 2014 as the co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach for the UConn Huskies under new head coach Bob Diaco.

"There's going to be challenges," Brown said recently at a sit-down with all the assistant coaches at the Burton Family Football Complex. "There's going to be growing pains, but at the end of the day, I'm very excited to work with these young men, get their confidence up and get them playing at an extremely high level.

"I want this defense to be smart, have great effort and energy to the football, tough, not making mistakes, not beating yourself, not giving up big plays, and forcing turnovers. If we can make those things happen, we'll win. I have no doubt because everywhere I've been when we had those four or five ingredients, you had a chance to be a pretty darn good defense."

Great effort. Great energy. Playing tough. That was Brown in a nutshell during his days with the Patriots and Mississippi Valley State. At Mississippi Valley, Brown was a three-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference first-team selection (1985-87), amassing 570 career tackles and being tabbed as "The Undertaker."

"That came during college," Brown said. "The local radio guy gave them to us ... we all had nicknames. The radio guy kept saying `this guy buries people' and he started calling me `The Undertaker.' It stuck."

Brown was drafted in the second round of the 1988 draft by New England and spent the next eight seasons playing linebacker, earning three Pro Bowl appearances (1991, '92, '93).

And when he wasn't giving stock tips or watching his son race around the football field during Pop Warner games, Brown caught the football bug again.

"I volunteered at the high school and just kind of grew from there," he said. "I coached at the high school for four years. I left there, was hired by coach Parcells in 2006 (working with the inside linebackers) and the rest is kind of ... I left there, went to Virginia, went to Richmond, left Richmond, went back to Virginia and now I'm here."

Not that Brown was looking to leave Virginia, where he coached the defensive line, but when Diaco -- who was the linebackers coach at Virginia in 2007 when Brown was a graduate assistant -- called and pitched his vision of what UConn could be, Brown was hooked.

"Truthfully, I was surprised (when Diaco called)," Brown said. "We had stayed in touch over the last couple of years. I wasn't expecting it and I certainly wasn't looking to leave, but when he called, it immediately captured my attention because just knowing the type of guy he is. I've been around some passionate guys but he is passion plus energy. It is unbelievable and a great quality to have."

Brown played for three seasons under Parcells and coached with him for another year in Dallas. Needless to say, a lot of the "Tuna" rubbed off.

"What Parcells taught me was don't overload your players with a bunch of `if they do this, we'll do that,'" Brown said. "Don't make the players robotic. Give them simple, clear, concise directions. Tell them what you want to do, show them how to do it and let them go play. That's what we're going to do here at UConn."